More Migrant Families, and Guatemalans, Are Trying to Enter the U.S.

Who will take care of the 14 year old boy the Guatemalan father is so willing to leave behind? There was not another viable alternative between Guatemala and the United States border he could have chosen?

The majority of Americans want illegal immigration stopped. The Border Wall, finding those who overstay their visas (700,000) in 2017, ending chain migration, the visa lottery and enforcing e-verify by imprisoning employers, not just fining them would be a good start.

Makes sense for Trump to pay Mexico to keep migrants out of Mexico, IF mexico actually does that. This could also be an incentive to Mexico to keep the migrants flowing.

Many of us are older and know how quickly time passes. The oligarchs and corporations have a strangle hold on all of humanity now and have, for their immediate profit, set us firmly on a path to extinction. Within one hundred years our children and grandchildren will be desperately trying to migrate north to find sanctuary in Canada due to extreme drought, poverty, storms and high temperatures from global warming. I wonder if their reception will be as brutal and inhumane as the one that we are giving to our southern sisters and brothers now?

In 2017 remittances to Guatamala totaled over $8 billion. 98% came from the US. Remittances through August 2018 totaled over $6 billion, up from last year-- 12% higher for August alone. This is in large part economic migration.

Democrats complain about any attempt to control the border as being “cruel.” What is their solution. I refuse to vote for either party until something is actually accomplished.

In this day and age you have no way of tracking the back of tractor trailers?

It's hard to know where to start with the problem of immigration. Overall, immigration benefits the host country economically. This idea that it is a huge strain on our system economically is for the most part, false. Better policy is needed to open access to immigration in a legal fashion to help curb illegal immigration. Much like the illicit traffic of drugs, immigrants wouldn't come here if it weren't lucrative to do so. That means that we are employing an underground, black-market labor force to our benefit. At the same time, the by-product is that we are creating misery and trauma to those unlucky enough to perish or be injured in the journey to make it here. Let us not forget that in very recent human history, "illegal" immigrants from Europe decimated native populations of humans primarily with disease and later, genocide. Most of the people traveling north to escape persecution and secure better economic futures are the descendants of indigenous people. I have very little hope that our policies will improve in a rational, intelligent fashion that serves the greater good.

The numbers arriving at our southern border keep growing because we are unable to return these migrants home in a timely manner. Timely in this case would as soon as they arrive. Hence, as any intelligent person could deduce, regardless of the laws if you come north to the USA with a child you will stay. And stay you will, for years. By then you can easily melt into the population regardless of your legal status. We in the USA may be breaking our brains trying to figure this all out BUt those coming north are just way to clever for the whole thing. They know that trying to go north is worth it because they will stay. Details and politics are secondary and unimportant. Its the results that count and the result is that if you cross over the border you will make it in. It isn't a question of it being bad in Guatemala or Honduras, its the question that its way better over here then there. Its not asylum but an economic migration that we have proven unable to stop and will saddle this country with problems for a generation.

"... President Trump has been stymied in his efforts to stop the flow of immigrants along the Southwest border with Mexico." His efforts, like the endless war on drugs of the past, is a shame. Until employers are prosecuted for hiring undocumented workers, the flow over the border will never stop. There is bipartisan agreement that no effective action will be taken on this.

Can we dispense with the claim that this dangerous and difficult journey is taken to avoid danger in their homelands? They all know what to say and when to say it. This is simply based on economics - planning on working in the US and remitting money to their homes. We need a wall to stop and deter the less sophisticated, better inspections at border crossings, modern visa tracking and proper enforcemet of E-Verify with significant penalties on employers for to have violated the law, jail time for employers with repeat offences.

You can just imagine how bad it is there if they are trying to come here. My heart breaks.

What are the U.N. and O.A.S. doing to improve life in Guatemala and other Central American counties to discourage illegal immigration to the US ? Obviously, very little. So Uncle Sam must pick up the cost of the relocation. Bad policy, that. Build a wall to discourage the flow.

Are they even trying to make it in Mexico before reaching the border? If not, why not?

Sad sad sad . Let them in . All my grandparents were immigrants escaping antisemitism ... being turned away would have been a death sentence

I spent most of July helping to process the reunited families here in El Paso. Most of them were heading into the interior to be with family while pursuing their asylum case. They all had two things in common: they all had horrific stories about why they had fled their homes, their treatment in detention or the lies told to them by callous guards. One Honduran man was told he would never see his daughter again and she was now US property and would be sold to whoever wanted her. To a one they all asked: will I be able to work? What kinds of jobs are there in ——-? Someday we might be presented with a similar situation. How would we like to be treated?

And yet the NY Times is reporting in another article that some Democrats like Senator Merkley are complaining about Department of Homeland Security moving some money from FEMA to immigration enforcement and deportation and detention centers. Given this article and countless others, it would seem that (in the absence of other Congressional funding), this discretionary move by DHS is justified and necessary. The timing from Senator Merkley is really off. Is he not aware that 7 of the 13 hijackers on 9/11 had overstayed their visas and should have been deported? If existing immigration law had simply been enforced, the illegal alien visa overstay hijackers would have been deported and out of the country before 9/11. How is it possible 17 years later that Congress still has not dealt with this and there remain an estimated 11 million to as many as 25 million illegal aliens in the nation (depending on whether you use the Pew estimate vs the Yale estimate)?

Democrats and Koch Brother/Chamber of Commerce Republicans are achieving their goal of open borders. (At least the Koch Brothers are honest about it.) The Democrats are getting their stream of future voters. The Koch Brothers are getting their stream of cheap labor to keep U.S. wages down. They have thwarted any effective enforcement of border laws, notably a physical barrier. In fact, the only enforcement they will support is a something that won’t actually work. They have also aggressively advocated for laws and policies that deliberately conflate “refugees” with “economic migrants” and ensure ease of entry of illegal immigrants into the U.S. They create “sanctuary cities” and resist cooperation with federal agencies enforcing immigration law. Now people who want to enter the U.S. are not afraid of being apprehended, they WELCOME it. They know that by simply uttering three magic words, “I request asylum.”, they will be essentially guaranteed a couple of years of legal residency in the U.S. before their case is due for a hearing, and an unlimited number of years after that if they skip their hearing and join the underground economy. Their stay will be permanent when a periodic amnesty is granted.

"The data also show that Guatemalans make up an increasingly larger share of migrants ...” In a 4/12/18 article on the Wilson Center’s blog New Security Beat titled "Beyond Violence: Drought and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle", a researcher at the University of Colorado noticed that in 2016, most of the unaccompanied minors were from Guatemala. She said the violence in Guatemala is concentrated in 2 areas, but only 20% of Guatemalan migrants were from these 2 areas. The rest came from areas where the homicide rate is comparable with the U.S. The researcher wrote,"Guatemala has some of the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all of Latin America, which are now further intensified by climate events.” Different websites say that, in comparison to those of other Central American countries, Guatemalans have been the least educated, and the least likely to practice contraception. Their undereducated, overpopulated country does not have enough resources. Climate change is further limiting their resources. We could try to help Guatemalans, in their own country, by explaining family planning and making contraception widely available, by encouraging education, by working with Guatemalan farmers, and by providing food aid. What we cannot do is absorb everyone who manages to cross our border. Our environmental resources are also limited, and we already have the world’s 3rd highest population.

The numbers given are those that are known. What are the estimates of the numbers of those who crossed without getting caught? I am only guessing double the amount caught or surrender. So 100,000 a month approximately. That is 1.2 million annually. How much longer will we be able to keep taking in these amounts? And the costs of illegal entrants are above 120 BILLION annually. How can we keep up with any of this? It's untenable.

I recently had work done on several rentals and my residence. Three roofs were installed by an American owner of the roofing company I used. I tried several different companies but found all hired non-English speaking workers. The language spoken was Spanish. I'm willing to pay more for American workers but I couldn't find any. Immigration is a huge problem. I want immigrants to come to the USA but I want Doctors, programmers, Ph.Ds and people with skills. I don't care where they are from. I want us to keep Ph.D.s that come here from other countries for their education. I can mow my yard and I'm willing to pay more for manual labor or products of manual labor when done by Americans.

Wouldn't it make more sense to cooperate with Mexico, perhaps as part of the NAFTA, to seal the border in southern Mexico so that we could better control migration from Central America? Then these migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, etc. could be processed and evaluated closer to their home countries. It would also be useful to have an open discussion within the U.S. about the legal definition of asylum and just what we are willing to do as a nation for the desperate in Central America and elsewhere. Then sensible legislation could follow. I do understand I am being ridiculous- this will never happen.